


Chicago (Maybe We'll Find Hapiness in Each Other Again)

by Mouse (clandestineAbattoir)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Getting Back Together, M/M, Minerva/Duck is mentioned for like a sentence and it's describing why they broke up, Post-Canon, Songfic, everything is the same but i retconned in a prior indruck relationship, i needed to write something to distract myself from the emptiness the finale left in me, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 06:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20756210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clandestineAbattoir/pseuds/Mouse
Summary: "And if I hear that you'll be in ChicagoThen I'll take the first flight tomorrowConfess all the feelings that I've been concealing for yearsAnd if you happen to be in the cityThen meet me on top of the highest buildingDarling what else can I lose I already lost you"-Chicagoby The Icarus Account





	Chicago (Maybe We'll Find Hapiness in Each Other Again)

**Author's Note:**

> I needed to give myself some soft Indruck content after that finale and that song gave me inspiration.

It had been three years since Duck had last seen Indrid. They had broken up five years ago, on good terms, and Duck started dating Minerva shortly after. Duck had thought he was happy, with Minerva, traveling and working with local reforestation programs, but it turns out that it wasn’t love, not really. It was all those feelings of admiration and respect Duck had felt for his former mentor that made it feel like it. So he and Minerva had decided to go their separate ways, Minerva going to do some wildlife conservation in Sudan while Duck tried to figure out a direction to go now that he didn’t travel with Minerva. He supposed he could go back to the states, see how everyone was doing there. But he didn’t really want to go back to Kepler just yet. There was a restlessness inside his soul that just wouldn’t go away. 

That was how he found himself sitting in a Canadian airport three months later, booking the next flight to Chicago. He had always wanted to visit, but had never really had the chance. He was kind of excited. It would be weird, doing it alone, but he didn’t have anyone to do it with. He wished he did. Oh well.

As if on cue, his phone started ringing in his pocket. It was an unrecognized number, but he recognized the area code as one from near Kepler. Who was calling him whose number he didn’t already have? He answered, mainly out of curiosity. 

“Go for Duck.”

“Hello, Duck Newton. So, Chicago, huh? I didn’t mean to pry, just saw it in a passing glance at the future.”

Duck nearly dropped the goddamn phone in his shock. It had been so long since he heard that lilting drawl. He was almost ashamed to admit the pang it sent through him. Despite himself, he missed Indrid. He was so busy analyzing that that he forgot to respond. 

“Duck?”

“Oh, shit, yeah. Hi ‘Drid. Yeah, Chicago. Always wanted to see it, finally got the chance.”

“Ah, I see.” There was a contemplative pause over the phone. “Do you perhaps want some company? Sorry if I’m being too forward. I just..,” Indrid suddenly seemed sheepish, “I just figured you might be lonely, but looking at it, there's a high chance you want some alone time, actually, so I’ll just-”

“Wait!” Duck finally smacked himself out of his shock to formulate a response, “I’d uh. I’d actually love some company. You in the area or somethin’?”

“Well, no,” Indrid’s voice was growing quieter by the second, “but there just so happens to be a cheap flight first thing tomorrow, and I really have nothing important to do for the next while or so, ever since Leo took over…” Duck could practically hear Indrid blushing. The image made him smile a little bit. 

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. Uh, do ya got a phone or something I can call?”

“Well, no, but I’ll meet you by the uh- the locals call it the Sears Tower but I believe it’s official title is currently the Willis tower. It’s the tallest building. Can’t miss it.”

“What time?”

“Um.. maybe noon- no, that goes wrong- how- how about eleven? My flight gets in eight A.M. so that should give me plenty of time to uh, get a hotel room and stuff.”

“We can share a room, ‘Drid. No reason to make this trip more expensive than it has to be.”

He heard a gentle sigh on the other end of the line. “Oh thank god. I wasn’t gonna ask because I didn’t want to- you know, impose. But if we didn’t I would have to find a motel on Lincoln Avenue and I didn’t foresee that going well for me.”

“Yeah, no problem-”

“Oh, shoot.”

A spike of worry shot through Duck.

“What’s wrong, ‘Drid?” He asked softly.

“The only hotel downtown with vacancies on our price range is only going to have a room with one bed available. There’s a music festival going on this weekend. Lol- Lollapalooza? Yeah, that one.”

Duck considered this. It seemed cruel to make Indrid find a seedy motel somewhere in the city, plus, it wasn’t like they hadn’t shared a bed before. It would be just like old times. Kind of. Except this time they wouldn’t be holding each other. But Duck could live with that. Probably.

The sound of Indrid’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?”

He heard Indrid laugh softly to himself. His laugh sounded like music. 

“I said-” a snicker “I said: I don’t think it’ll be a problem, though, but if it is let me know.”

“It’s no problem, ‘Drid. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“See you tomorrow, Duck.”

Duck could have sworn he heard something like fondness creeping into Indrid’s voice.

\---------

Indrid was waiting at the base of the Sears Tower (he never got the hang of calling it the Willis tower once they changed it) nervously. God, this was a stupid idea. He knew Duck probably wouldn’t want to get back together with him (no matter what the future said,) but he thought it might be fun. Everything had calmed down enough back in Kepler that he figured it might be a nice change of pace. Now that he was here, though, he was freaking out. There were so many scenarios of how things could go wrong that he had failed to consider. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Duck approach. When he saw Indrid, his smile brightened. Indrid ignored the pain the thumped solidly in his chest at the thought that he might make Duck happy someday again.

“Hello, Duck,” he greeted as Duck carefully cut through the steady stream of people walking along the sidewalk. Chicago was a very populated city. It made his brain hurt sometimes.

“Mornin’, ‘Drid,” Duck nodded, “how was your flight?”

“It was fine. I sat next to a woman who was on a very loud conference call most of the flight, but other than that it was fine.” He shrugged. “How was yours?”

“Long as fuck. Sitting down for ten hours aint exactly my idea a’ fun, but hey, what can ya do?” 

A silence settled over the two for a moment before Duck spoke again.

“So, how’s everythin’- how’s everything been back home?” He asked idly, suddenly very interested in his own boots. Indrid barely suppressed a fond chuckle.

“Things are good. They’re all happy, for the most part. It’s… it’s an amazing thing to watch, if I’m being honest. Wish I could feel that.” 

Sure, Indrid had been having a nice time being able to fucking relax for once, but he still felt like… something… was missing. (Duck. Duck was missing. He missed Duck, but Duck wasn’t his to have anymore.)

To his surprise, Duck nodded in agreement.

“Yeah. Kinda lonely on my own now, if I’m bein’ honest. Part a’ why it took me so long to break up with Minerva. Didn’t want to be alone.” 

Indrid paused. He wanted to say that maybe they could be alone together, he really did, but he didn’t want to force anything on Duck. He had been the fact that he had been pining for Duck still for years, so he knew that he could just exist without being romantically involved with Duck. Sure, it might hurt, like, a lot, but it was fine. Just fine. He took a peak at the future to try and figure out whether a last minute confession of attraction might be a good course of action. They were largely unhelpful. The chances of rejection were the exact same as the chances of Duck saying yes. Well, the latter was a little higher, but it was close.

“-drid? You still with me my guy?”

“Huh?” Indrid flinched a little when he realized Duck was speaking to him, just from surprise. 

“There ya are. I said uh- I said. Maybe- if. If you want- You an’ I could try again? Make a life for ourselves- where uh, fuck. We make our own happiness?” Duck was bright red, refusing to meet Indrid’s eyes.

Indrid couldn’t help the smile that graced his lips. 

“I think I would love to, Duck.”

Duck smiled, and took Indrid’s hand in his own. Indrid was glad he decided to come, after all.

  
  
  
  



End file.
